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Glass LaH 



Book H3 9&, 






ADDRESS. 

¥i9 



T H B 



PRESENT RELATIONS OF PARTIES. 



DUTY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY TO ADJUST THE 

QUESTIONS WITH OTHER NATIONS BROUGHT 

OUT BY THE REBELLION, 



PROTECT AMERICAN FISHERIES 



AGAINST BRITISH AGGRES 



By BEMT. F. BUTLER, 

MUSIC HALL, BOSTON, NOV. 33, 1S-70. 




WARDEN & ROWELL, PRINTERS, LOWELL. 



'fjo 



of 



ADDRESS 



RESULTS OF THE WAR ABROGATING 
PARTY DISTINCTIONS. 

By the results flowing from the 
late Rebellion ; by the growth and 
expansion of the country ; by the 
facilities of intercommunication and 
transportation, demanding a system 
of national internal improvements ; 
by the variety of interests arising 
from opposing differences of indus- 
trial, agricultural and commercial 
pursuits ; b} r the necessities for rev- 
enue calling for taxation, both direct 
and indirect ; by the extent and 
varied character of our national ob- 
ligations introducing new forms of 
wealth and subjects for a circulating 
medium of unchangeable and equal 
value ; — -quite all the distinctions of 
party doctrines and party watch- 
words have been abrogated, save the 
single dogma, still adhered to by the 
Democratic party, as to the rights of 
the States as corporations in con- 
tradistinction to the rights of the 
Federal Union as a national govern- 
ment. 



MISSION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AT 
HOME ENDED. 

The Republican party, in its 
inception, held in fact but one 
cardinal principle in common ; its 
members divided upon every other. 
Its highest claim was a demand for 
the extinction of slavery by the grad- 
ual circumscription of its limits. By 
the insurrection of the seceding 
States, by their union into a con- 
federation exercising the powers of 
government, by the overthrow of that 
confederation, preceded by the 
emancipation of every slave, and by 
the subsequent reconstruction of 
eveiy insurgent State with constitu- 
tions themselves obliterating slavery ; 
and lastly by the 14th and 15th 
amendments giving to all men equal 
rights and equal powers under the 
government, even that distinctive 
idea has been taken from the Repub- 
lican part}', leaving it, as a party, 
no peculiarity of doctrine for its 
future aspirations upon which to rally 
its partisans. Its record is of the 



past alone. Its mission, at home, 
has ended save to garner the gleanings 
of the harvest of its great past. 

THE DEMOCRACY DWINDLE INTO AN 
OPPOSITION ONLY. 

The more intelligent of the Demo- 
cratic party — those not hound up in 
the simple traditions of the resolu- 
tions of '98 — those who think for 
themselves, who study the philosophy 
of events and indulge even a hope of 
a political future, accept the amend- 
ments of the constitution — which are 
but the statutory expression of the 
condition of the public mind on the 
questions which the war settled — as a 
finality, and propose no longer to 
struggle against what is political 
fate ; so that to the leading minds, of 
the Democrac}^ all former party 
ideas have vanished save carping 
criticisms upon the republican admin- 
istration of government, which 
may be the basis of an opposition, 
but not the foundation upon which 
a great party can sustain itself and 
govern a country. 

THE SHIBBOLETH OF REPUBLICANISM 

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE COUN- 
TRY IS NOT TO PASS INTO THE 
HANDS OF ITS ENEMIES. 

When the call to arms in 1861 
ranged patriotic men of all shades 
of political opinion on the side 
of the government, and by the 
mere force of that circumstance they 
were thrown into the ranks of the 
Republican party because they saw 
that the time had come when slavery 



was no longer compatible with free 
institutions as they existed under 
the Union and Constitution, many 
who had acted all their lives with 
the Democratic party became identi- 
fied as Republicans, bringing into that 
party all their Democratic doctrines 
and opinions except those upon free- 
dom and slavery, which had been 
grafted upon the Democratic creed 
by the necessity of sustaining the 
institutions of the South where the 
majority of «fche party held sway. 
This class of Republicans, or war 
Democrats, formed no inconsiderable 
portion of the Republican party and 
aided not a little in the ultimate 
triumphs of the country in the 
struggle for its life. So it hap- 
pens that the Republican party is 
scarcely a homogeneous one. Its 
members to-day hold but a single 
thought in common — they may and 
do differ upon all else. That is the 
determination that the government 
of the country ought not, must not 
and shall not pass into the hands of 
those who sought to divide and 
destroy it, or who were passively 
willing it should be divided. 

GRANT'S ADMINISTRATION STRONGER 
THAN ANY SINCE JACKSON. 

Herein lies the secret of that ad- 
mirable vitality of the Republican 
party which has become the wonder 
of. the politician and the d-read of 
the Democrac}'. This determination 
of all true men, shown in every 
canvass, expressed by every ballot 



has enabled the Republican party, 
after ten consecutive years of 
administration, after three times 
electing its president notwithstand- 
ing the apostasy of one, in spite of 
the many corruptions that necessar- 
ily creep into a party so long holding 
power, to do, as it is now doing, 
what no other administration has 
been able to do since Jackson — elect 
to the first House of Representatives, 
chosen after the inauguration of its 
president, a majority of nearly two- 
thirds. Save in the case of Lincoln 
only in 1862, when the war united 
all parties at the North, and the 
whole South had thrown itself off, who 
was enabled to carry a small majority, 
this has not been done since Jackson. 
Every other president but Grant 
has found an opposition speaker in 
his first House of Representatives. 
Even Pierce, who carried the whole 
country save five States, is not an 
exception. 

LOYALTY TO FREEDOM THE PREREQUI- 
SITE TO POLITICAL PREFERMENT. 

And why this marvellous result? 
Because the people believe the Re- 
publican party have saved the coun- 
try ; they believe that it desires to 
maintain liberty and free institutions 
secured by law ; that in spite of all 
its mistakes, all its shortcomings, 
and all its sins of omission and com- 
mission — and they are many, to our 
shame be it spoken — that the interests 
of the country as the representative 
government, as an exemplar to man- 



kind, are safer in the hands of the 
Republican party than in the hands 
of that Democracy who sympathized 
with the rebellion and threatens 
when in power, to unsettle all the 
issues closed by the war. This 
one vital thought — Fidelity to 
Freedom, Law and Country — is the 
shibboleth that every true man must 
fitter who expects political prefer- 
ment at the hands of the people. 

Upon all other questions the wid- 
est latitude of opinion is permitted 
in the Republican party. 

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY DIVIDED UPON 
THE TARIFF. 

Upon the tariff some are for pro- 
tection per se, and some are free 
traders, while perhaps the major 
part, learaing from experience that 
indirect taxation is most easily 
borne by the people and most 
easily enforced by government, and 
believing that the . necessities of 
the country to meet the required 
large expenditures of administration 
and the interest upon the public 
debt — a legacy of the war — have 
made a need for tariff to raise reve- 
nue sufficient for a basis to all 
necessary incidental protection to 
American industries, have adopted 
for their policy such a revenue tariff 
with incidental protection, with the 
largest possible free list. 

DEMOCRACT NOT A UNIT FOR FREE- 
TRADE. 

Like differences upon a tariff policy 
disturb the peace of the Democracy. 



6 



The farmer of the Northwest believes 
there outfit to be protection for his 
wool. The Kehtuckian asks it for 
his hemp, and the Louisianian for 
his sugar. So by no means are our 
opponents united upon revenue 
measures. 

REPUBLICAN DIFFERENCES UPON FI- 
NANCE AND CURRENCY. 

Upon measures of finance and the 
character of our currency, similar 
differences divide the adherents of 
each party. Many good and earnest 
Republicans believe that the present 
currency furnished by the national 
banks is the best that the world ever 
saw, and that the prosperity if not 
the safety of the country is bound 
up in the sustenance of those insti- 
tutions and the mone} r they issue. 
Some also believe that the m i 
loaned the government during the 
war, although the lender took ad- 
vantage of the then depressed state 
of the nation's credit to make the 
best bargain he could and to loan his 
money at fifty per cent, or less of 
the obligation in coin, should never 
be made subject to taxation for an}' 
purpose whatever, and should be paid 
in gold at its fall face, irrespective 
•of the terms of the law which created 
the debt. Others are equally certain 
that paper money issued by corpora- 
tions for their own gain and profit is 
the dearest and worst currency with 
which a nation can be cursed, and in 
the language of Webster, that of all 
institutions ever devised by men to 



make the rich richer and the poor 
poorer, and to till the rich man's 
field by the sweat of the poor man's 
brow, the banking system which is- 
sues as mone} r , an irredeemable 
currency, bears the palm. Some 
believe that the burdens of taxation 
upon invested capital should be 
equal, whether the investment is in 
commerce, in manufactures, in agri- 
culture or in national securities, and 
see no reason why more than two 
thousand millions of the most pro- 
ductive wealth of the country should 
be substantially exempted from the 
public burdens, and especially the 
taxation of the nation which gives the 
only value to that class of capital. 
Some of these last also believe that 
the notes of the nation issued without 
cost or interest is a better currency 
than the note of any corporation is- 
sued for profit to the corporators can 
be. And they further believe that it 
is right of the government, if it is 
deemed politic, to pay its debts 
in exact accordance with the pro- 
visions of the laws creating them. 

SOLDIERS' PENSIONS A PREFERRED DEBT, 
TO BE PAID IN GOLD. 

And they know if any preference is 
to be given to any class of the gov- 
ernment creditors by provisions for 
payment in coin, it should be to 
those debts of high honor due to the 
soldiers who fought in the trenches 
of Vicksburg, Petersburg, and on 
the fields of Gettysburg and the 
heights of Lookout Mountain, and to 



the mothers, widows and orphans in 
their promised pensions, the price of 
a husband's and father's life-blood 
and limb. 

FAILURE TO MAKE FINANCIAL QUES- 
TIONS A TEST OF REPUBLICANISM. 

An attempt was made two years 
ago to read out of the Republican 
party those who held such belief, 
irrespective of their record of ser- 
vices to the country, or their fidelity 
upon those other great and vital 
questions of freedom and loj'alty to 
the government, which were the very 
essence of its existence. That attempt, 
however, was soon found to be utterly 
futile in the West, and the only case 
in which it was tried in the East 
resulted in so miserable a failure, so 
disastrous to those who undertook it, 
that the experiment will|hardly be re- 
peated. 

CONGRESS REFUSES TO TAX THE PEO- 
PLE FOR THE IMMEDIATE PAYMENT 
OF THE PUBLIC DEBT, 



The division in sentiment in both 
parties upon finance is still more 
curiously shown in what may be 
properly denominated the only ad- 
ministration measure of finance, that 
is, the taxation of the people for the 
immediate payment of the public 
debt. 

In his last annual report, the 
Secretary of the Treasury, speaking 
as the organ of the administation, 



fully recommended congress to sustain 
the then rate of taxation in order to 
a speedy payment of the public debt. 
The administration seemed to en- 
trench itself as in its stronghold in 
this, its great finance measure, yet 
we see a Republican congress, not 
without division in the Republican 
party, aided largely by Democratic 
votes, reducing both direct and indi- 
rect taxation of the people more than 
eighty millions of dollars at a single 
session, thus depriving the Treas- 
ury in a very large degree — nearly 
50 per cent. — of the means to carry 
out its own recommendations. Per- 
haps upon no measure was there a 
greater departure from the recom- 
mendation of the administration by 
congress than upon this. The Sec- 
retary of the Treasury made the 
ultimatum of his administration the 
immediate payment of the public 
debt, which could only be done, by 
keeping up the high rates of taxation 
imposed by the necessities of the 
war. And if economy in expendi- 
tures, if vigor in the collection of 
the revenue, if studious, energetic 
employment of all its products in 
cancelling the national obligations, 
be evidence of the wisdom of a poli- 
cy, certainly the highest praise is to 
be bestowed upon our honored fellow 
citizen, the Secretary of the Treasu- 
ry. Assuming the desirableness of 
his end, with scrupulous honesty and 
integrity of purpose, he has adopted 
every means to that consummation. 



8 



UNWISE TO EXHAUST BY TAXATION CAP- 
ITAL NEEDED TO DEVELOP THE 
COUNTRY. 

But a Republican congress doubted 
— and I am one of those who think 
that they might well be permitted to 
doubt — the wisdom of exhausting 
the commercial capital of the coun- 
try in order to cancel the national 
obligations within the life-time of the 
present generation. What, exactly, 
did the Secretary propose to do ? It 
was proposed to take by taxation 
from the people one hundred and 
fifty to two hundred millions of dol- 
lars each year with which to lessen, 
or, as it was phrased, to pay the 
national debt. 

SIX PER CENT. ONLY SAVED, AND TEN 
PER CENT. LOST THEREBY. 

But we all of us know that 
every dollar of money used in 
the agricultural, commercial and 
industrial enterprises of this coun- 
try costs the merchant, manufac- 
turer or agriculturist at least ten 
per cent, interest per annum ; and 
we have seen the "singular spectacle 
of a government, in order to save 
six per cent, interest, taking by tax- 
ation from the capital which the peo- 
ple needed to carry on their business, 
costing them ten per cent., nearly 
two hundred millions of dollars a 
year. Or, in other words, in order 
to save six per cent, interest to itself, 
the government causes the people to 
pay ten per cent, interest to obtain 
the money to answer the demands of 
the tax gatherer. 



CONGRESS CUT OFF EIGHTY MILLION 
TAXES LAST SESSION — WILL AN 
EQUAL AMOUNT NEXT. ' 

A majority of the Republican par- 
ty and a portion of the Democratic 
party did not think this wise, and 
therefore taxation was reduced, as 
we have seen, more than eighty mil- 
lions, and, in the coming session of 
congress it is safe to predict it will 
be reduced in quite an equal amount. 

THE ALLEGHANIES DIVIDE BOTH PAR- 
TIES ON FINANCIAL QUESTIONS. 

The Democracy of the West are 
sundered from their brethren upon 
these same measures. Indeed, with 
a few exceptions, upon questions of 
finance both parties in the country 
are substantially divided by a line 
running North and South along the 
backbone of the Alleshanies. Those 
on the Easterly side, where capital 
abounds, believe that it should be 
exempt from taxation ; those on the 
Westerly side, the debtor portion of 
the nation, believe that capital 
should bear equal if not a greater 
share of the public burdens. 

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHANGES 

FRONT ON THE ACQUISITION OF 

TERRITORY. 

Upon another set of great public 
measures a still more curious divis- 
ion and exchange of party ideas takes 
place. Heretofore it has been the 
boast of the Democratic party that 
they desired to extend the bounda- 
ries of the country, or, in the catch- 



word of the day " the area of free- 
dom," by acquisition of territory. 
Now we see a Republican administra- 
tion with wise prescience of the inter- 
est of the nation, seeking to annex 
San Domingo, sustained by a majority 
of a Republican Senate, and by a 
majority of a Republican House, and 
the whole Democratic vote solidly 
against receiving into the Union the 
best and most desirable acquisition 
that has ever offered an extension of 
our empire. 

THE WISDOM OF THE ANNEXATION OF 
SAN DOMINGO. 

Upon the annexation of San Do- 
mingo, one would have thought no 
patriot would have doubted the wise 
foresight of the President in eagerly 
pursuing this acquisition. The outer- 
most island of the Antilles, with the 
best harbor and most easily defended 
as a naval station of any on the 
continent, safe and salubrious at all 
seasons of the year at Samana Bay, 
a well-fortified naval station and coal 
depot of the United States established 
there, would render all the naval sta- 
tions of Great Britain or other 
foreign powers in the West Indies 
untenable and useless. Whoever 
desires this continent shall be 
ruled by Americans, and that all 
foreign powers shall retire therefrom, 
will agree with the President in his 
desire to have San Domingo, the 
priceless jewel of the sea, the 
possession of which insures Cuba 
as our own. 



ACQUISITION FAILED THROUGH DEM- 
OCRATIC VOTES. 

That administration measure failed 
by a union of a minority of the Re- 
publicans with the solid of the Demo- 
cratic vote ; yet the acquisition of 
Cuba, a less fertile and less com- 
manding island of the Antilles, at 
the cost of unnumbered millions, has 
been the subject of advocatory re- 
solutions, time out of mind, in De- 
mocratic conventions, equalled in 
number only by the repetition of 
the resolutions of '98. 

DEMOCRATS AND TARIFF MEN UNITE 
TO CRIPPLE OUR COMMERCE. 

We also see a like division in each 
party upon the question of the re-es- 
tablishment of American commerce, 
crippled and almost destroyed by 
the hostile acts of Great Britian 
during the rebellion, most vividly 
illustrated at the breaking out of the 
war between Prussia and France, 
when the President, as an adminis- 
tration measure, by a formal message 
recommended that our merchants 
have liberty to purchase the iron 
steamships of the belligerents which 
might be otherwise locked up by 
blockade in their ports to be naviga- 
ted under our flag, thus give em- 
ployment to our sailors and to cheap- 
en the transportation of our exports. 

TARIFF MEN AND FREE TRADERS UNITED 
AGAINST OUR BUYING SHIPS. 

We then saw the singular spectacle 
in congress of leading Democrats, 
one, an old whig abolitionist, rep- 



10 



resenting the Democracy of New 
York city, striking hands with 
the Republican tariff men of Maine 
and Pennsylvania, as well in the 
Senate as in the House, to talk against 
time so that the waning hours of the 
session might expire, to prevent the 
passage of a Republican administra- 
tion measure to relieve American 
commerce. 

BOTH UNITE AGAINST OUR SHIP- 
BUILDERS. 

Nor was this the only instance of 
the division of the members of both 
parties on a kindred subject. A 
bill prepared by a select committee of 
the Republican House of representa- 
tives on the decline of American 
commerce, endorsed by a Republican 
President of the United States in a 
special message, devised to afford 
relief to American ship builders, 
failed of consideration in a House of 
Representatives with a nominal Re- 
publican majority of more than two- 
thirds, by the votes of a minority of 
the Republicans going with the not 
undivided handful of Democrats. 

DEMOCRATIC PARTY DESTROYING STATE 
RIGHTS IN THE VITAL POINT. 

Let us now turn to the only ques- 
tion in which the Republican aud 
Democratic parties seem to be exact- 
ly and diametrically opposed, the 
rights of the States in the Union as 
States. Upon the most material of 
the rights of States, there seems to 
be a vivid interchange of views once 



held by the two parties. Previous 
and subsequent even to the last 
Presidential canvass, the candidate 
of the Democratic party has been de- 
monstrating to his followers, as a 
matter imperatively calling for re- 
form, the inequality of representation 
in the Senate of the Uniled States of 
the smaller States, such as Delaware, 
Rhode Island, Florida and Nevada, 
showing that their representation as 
States by Senators having equal pow- 
ers with the Senators of such States 
as New York, Pennsylvania and Ill- 
inois, is unequal and unjust, and 
wholly subversive of the Democratic 
doctrine of the right of the majority 
of the people to govern. So that the 
Democracy is found attacking the 
rights of States at the only point 
where States as States can make 
themselves felt in federal legisla- 
tion, to wit : State representation in 
the Senate ; while the Republican 
party, so far as it has expressed it- 
self, sustains the rights of all the 
States to equality of representation 
in the Senate. 



ALL FORMER PARTY ISSUES EITHER 

IGNORED OR EXCHANGED. 

» 

Thus we have seen that upon quite 
every issue that once divided the two 
great parties, either differences exist 
among their partizans or that each 
party has substantially changed its 
ground, one upholding that which 
the other formerly denied, the other 
denvino- that which it had asserted. 



11 



THE DUTY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 
TO ADJUST FOREIGN QUESTIONS. 

We have also seen that the Republican 
party has adjusted all the questions 
raised by the war, so far as they affect 
the internal polity of the government, 
and so far as itself is concerned. 
There now remains to it only to 
adjust the great international and 
foreign questions that were evolved 
by our late terrible civil contest. 
And as we have reconstructed the 
States lately destroyed by the rebel- 
lion, so we should reconstruct our 
commerce likewise destroyed in the 
same war. As we have adjusted the 
claims of our citizens for damages 
done in the war by our own gov- 
ernment, so far as we have thought 
them just and equitable and not 
tainted with rebellion, so we should 
now adjust the claims of our citi- 
zens and the claims of our nation 
upon those nations who took advan- 
tage of our crippled condition to 
show a hostile spirit followed by un- 
friendly acts. 

THE COURSE OF ENGLAND DURING THE 

WAR WAS MORE OBJECTIONABLE 

THAN THAT OF FRANCE. 

The chief offender against the 
national dignity and honor in this 
regard is the government of Great 
Britain. True, imperial France was 
quite as early iu the recognition of 
the belligerent rights of the rebels, 
quite as unfriendly in its spirit — in 
its attack upon the neighboring 
republic of Mexico ; but in the latter 



it failed to do us any injury, and the 
former was followed by no act of 
which we could justly complain. No 
rebel cruiser was fitted out or enter- 
tained and refitted in any French 
port. No pirate was let loose by 
Napoleon to prey upon our com- 
merce. 

ALABAMA CLAIMS DO NOT REST ON 

THE MERE INFRACTIONS OF PUBLIC 

LAWS. 

Upon what are popularly known 
as the Alabama claims, I entertain 
some views of the grounds upon 
which they may rest different from 
those usually put forth as the basis 
of our grievances. I do not now 
nor should I ever propose to ai-gue 
the question whether England was 
too earl}' or sufficiently late in her 
recognition of the belligerent rights 
of the South. I hold, with the Presi- 
dent, that the question of time for 
recognizing the belligerency of con- 
tending parties is one to be settled 
by each nation for itself, and no other 
nation has airv proper ground for 
complaint of that determination. 
Nor do I care to examine whether 
the Alabama and Shenandoah might 
or might not have been kept in port 
by more vigilance or increased activ- 
ity of the British law officers, or by 
more stringent municipal laws. Ad- 
mit, for the sake of the argument, 
that in that regard Great Britain did 
each act in conformity with the laws 
of nations. 



12 



THE LAW OF NATIONS VIOLATED. 

Yet, it will not be denied that 
afterwards the Alabama and Shen- 
andoah were received in British ports, 
their officers feted, toasted and dined, 
and the vessels refitted, provisioned 
and supplied with the necessary 
means of continuing their warfare 
upon our commerce, which was 
clearly a violation of international 
laws. 

BITTER HOSTILITY OF ENGLISH GOV- 
ERNMENT. 

Nor will it be denied that the 
government of England was bit- 
terly hostile to the Union during 
the whole prosecution of the war ; 
and was only restrained by her fears 
of the results, and not by love of 
the United States, from actively tak- 
ing sides in that contest by acknow- 
ledging the Confederacy. No man 
can doubt that her government heart- 
ily desired that her only successful 
commercial rival should be crushed. 

ENGLAND FOUNDS THE DOMINION OF 
CANADA TO CRIPPLE US. 



to be in accord with a hostile nation 
on the South. B}' the valor of our 
soldiers and the patriotism of our 
people, under the providence of God, 
the British government was disap- 
pointed in its dearest wishes and 
failed of its most cherished desires. 



SHE HAS DESTROYED OUR COMMERCE 
AND PROLONGED THE WAR. 

The effect of what was done and 
omitted to be done by Great Britain, 
that as a friendly nation she ought 
to have done, is that our com- 
merce has been substantially swept 
from the seas ; we had only thousands 
of tons at the close of the war where 
we had millions of tons at the begin- 
ning. No man, even now, can. cross 
the Atlantic Ocean in a sea-going 
steamer flying the American flag. 

Another eifect of the position of the 
British government toward the South, 
by giving false hopes to the Con- 
federacy, was to prolong the war, at 
the expense of millions upon millions 
of treasure and thousands upon 
thousands of lives 



NOTHING UONE FOU SIX YEARS. 



• Nor can we look upon the consolida- \ 
tion of her provinces upon the north | 
of us into a new nation called a Do- 
minion, from which unchecked raids ! And yet we are far into the sixth 
were made upon our defenceless bord- ! year since the war was ended without 
ers, (while the war was raging), as being nearer, — not to say to a 



other than a hostile movement, de- 
signed to cripple us in case the South 
should be successful, by creating an 
unfriendly nation on the North of us, 



reparation for these wrongs — even 
to a practical consideration of the 
questions involved than we were at 
the dav of the surrender of Lee. 



13 



DUTY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY TO 
SETTLE FOR THESE WRONGS. 

The Republican party is the dom- 
inant party of the country, and must 
remain so for the next three years at 
least. Upon it and upon its admin- 
istration devolve the duty and the 
burden of bringing to a conclusion 
all these questions and obtaining the 
needed reparation, indemnification, 
and apology for our wrongs. Delays 
aid not their solution, but rather 
add to their complications. Time can 
never obliterate the deep sense of in- 
jury this nation entertains of the ac- 
tion of Great Britain during our war. 
Years only intensify its bitterness. 
The gaping wounds in our national 
honor never will close up by lapse of 
years. They must always remain 
green, open, sore, until healed by the 
potent salve of ample reparation and 
indemnification. 

WRONG AND COWARDLY TO WAIT TILL 

ENGL VND 16 IN WAR TO LET 

PERATES LOOSE ON HER 

COMMERCE. 

True, it is urged by some, not too 
far-sighted or discriminating people, 
principally newspaper writers, that 
we should delay settlement of our 
claims until England gets into, a war, 
and then let loose other Alabamas, 
other Shenandoahs, and other Flori- 
das from our ports, in the interests 
of the belligerent nation with 
which she should be at war, to prey 
upon her commerce, especially to 



make the pretext ol war between her- 
self and either of her dependen- 
cies, to have our own citizens 
fit out our ships as cruisers un- 
der some apochryphal fiag and thus 
to avenge our wrongs. The states- 
manship of those who advocate 
such a course would seem to be this : 
we complain of her wrongs, and we 
propose to make those right by doing 
other like wrongs to be inflicted in 
safety when our enemy is crippled. 
Is this statesmanship? Is it mag- 
nanimous? Is such redress bold, is 
it manly ? Na3 r , is it not sneakingly 
cowardly ? 

LET US DEMAND OUR RIGHTS AND 
MAINTAIN THAT DEMAND. 

Let us rather stand up in the 
manly strength of our nationhood, 
and fearlessly, boldly claim the 
rights which belong to us, insist up- 
on their being respected, and that all 
questions between us and Great 
Britain be adjusted at once and for- 
ever, so as to take away all cause of 
unfriendliness between two powerful 
nations of the earth. Let us say to 
Great Britain, " Thus much we are 
wronged ; thus much we require to 
satisfy the nation's honor and the 
nation's loss, and for that wrong, 
and that loss, thus much we must 
have, because it is our right, and be- 
cause we are able to maintain our 
right." Judge ye between the two 
proposed modes of adjusting the 
Alabama claims. 



14 



OUR CLAIMS AGAINST ENGLAND DO NOT 
DEPEND ON LEGAL QUIBBLES. 

I have already said that I would 
deal with this question wholly indepen- 
dently of the discussion of the mere 
legal rights of the parties as deter- 
mined by public law ; and I do so upon 
this, among other grounds. Whether 
England stood upon the apices of her 
legal rights, or stepped beyond them 
when she made use of her power and 
position to injure us, because of her 
hostile spirit, can make no difference 
in the amount of wrong clone to us. 
The injury is as great, if she was 
technically within the law, as if 
she had broken some rule of inter- 
national law, fancifully enacted by 
some student publicist in his closet, 
when writing a book. 

OUR CLAIM IS THAT SHE HARMED US 
BY HER HOSTILITY. 

I only see that her government was 
hostile, and her hostility was harmful 
to the United States, and was so in- 
tended. We claim reparation for that 
harm done by this hostility. The 
question is how are we to enforce our 
rights? By declaring war? By no 
means. The United States will never 
lightly declare war. We are not a 
war-making government ; we are only 
a war-canying-on government when 
war is made upon us. 

HOW TO BEAT A VICIOUS NEIGHBOR. 

I would apply the same doctrine to 
nations that I would to individuals un- 



der like circumstances. If my neigh- 
bor takes advantage of the fact that 
his line lies close under my windows, 
to build a high fence to shut out the 
light and air from my dwelling, in or- 
der to show his hostility to myself and 
family, do I stop to inquire whether 
he has put that fence one inch over 
or one inch within the line which di- 
vides his land from mine? If he 
has put it one inch over, I may sue 
him in the courts of law. But there 
are no courts of law to adjust dis- 
putes between nations. If he has 
put it one inch on his own land, to 
gratify his ill will and injure me, 
what is my remedy? Simply to de- 
clare him a bad neighbor, and that I 
will have notning to do with him in 
the future, save to get him out of 
my neighborhood if I can, and as 
soon as I can, either by causing him 
to move or by removing myself. 

OUR REMEDY, NON-INTERCOURSE, WHICH 
IS NOT JUST CAUSE OF WAR. 

So would I do with England. ' If 
she will not make reparation for the 
wrongs done us during the war by 
her hostility, not by simply making 
good the millions that our mer- 
chants lost, but by making good all 
that the nation has lost, I would 
treat her as I should my vicious 
neighbor, who gave vent to his 
enmity by darkening my windows — 
declare that [ would have notning to 
do with her, that I would neither buy 
nor sell with her, or after due notice 
hold diplomatic or commercial rela- 



tions with her henceforth until full re- 
paration is made. Complete, thorough 
and stringent non-intercourse is the 
remedy. That is not war. That, is 
not a casus belli under any sugges- 
tion of the law of nations. We have 
the undisputed right to trade with 
whom we please, or to refuse to 
trade with whom we please. 

ENGLAND DARE NOT TREAT US AS SHE 
DID CHINA. 

True, Great Britain, when the 
Government of China refused to 
have its subjects poisoned by English 
opium, sent a fleet and forced the 
opium down the throats of the Chin- 
ese at the mouth of her cannon ; but 
what publicist ever dreamed that 
that was ' done under any provision 
of international law, but only an ex- 
hibition of force? Besides, China 
had not been admitted into the fam- 
ily of nations. When tne United 
States decides not to buy British 
goods until she settles the Alabama 
claims, I am willing to see Great 
Britain if she thinks best sent her 
fleets to our ports to sent ns to 
take her manufactures of iron and 
wool. 

We know how to conduct a defen- 
sive war whether by sea or laud. 

TAKING OUR TRADE AND PRODUCTS 

FROM ENGLAND WOULD WORK A 

REVOLUTION IN THEIR 

GOVERNMENT. 

I do not deem it either unmanly or 
unfair to say to England that she 



shall have none of our cotton or 
breadstuff's until this question is 
settled, although such deprivation to 
Manchester, Birmingham and Brad- 
ford might work a revolution in 
her government in six months. 

NON-INTERCOURSE RIGHT, THOUGH WE 

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE 

OPPORTUNITY. 

Nor would it be more unmanly or 
unfair to declare such non-inter- 
course, because now is our opportu- 
nity insomuch as Prussia and 
France will be ready, in recovering 
from their exhaustion, to take from 
us all the surplus that we have both 
of cotton and food for export, even 
if they become sellers of the 
first to England. Nor is it our fault 
if England's delays in doing us jus- 
tice have postponed our demand for 
it till her complications with Russia, 
have substantially put her at our 
mercy. 

BY THIS COURSE WE SHOULD SAVE MORE 

THAN THE AMOUNT OF OUR LOSSES 

BY THE ALABAMA, WHICH TnE 

U. S. GOVERNMENT OUGHT 

TO ASSUME. 

The saving to the country by non- 
importation of British goods — the 
impetus given to our manufactories — 
the protection thus afforded to Ameri- 
can industry, would very soon quite 
make good to us all that we have lost 
in money by the Alabama outrages. 
The United States government ought 
to assume and pay all that there is of 



16 



ascertained loss to the individual 
citizens because of these claims. 

THE DIFFERENT CLASSES OF WRONGS 
STATED. 

The magnitude of the claims by this 
country, as a nation, upon England, 
and the claims of individuals as in- 
dividuals upon either government, is 
very different. When the individual 
claims upon the government, he can- 
not make good his claim if, being 
insured, he has been paid insurance, 
because, if his claim is allowed he 
will receive his pay twice. Nor can 
the insurer, even if he has paid the 
insurance, make any claim, because 
the war-premiums which he de- 
manded for his insuring were 
equal to the losses which he 
paid. Such is the very theory of 
insurance ; so that if he were paid 
by the Government too, he would be 
twice paid. The loss has fallen upon 
the merchants, who paid the war-pre- 
miums and had their commerce 
crippled by British interference, 
who are too scattered and too numer- 
ous to have their losses adjusted as 
individual claims, and upon the 
nation whose sovereignty and honor 
were defied and insulted. 

Therefore, it seems to me but 
proper that the United States should 
undertake to remunerate small 
amounts due the individual claim- 
ants, and then add the amounts so 
paid to its own great claim to be ad- 
justed by Great Britain as a whole. 



ENGLAND, AS REPARATION, OUGHT TO 
REMOVE ALL DANGER OF COL- 
LISION IN THE FUTURE. 

For, after all, the great injury and 
wrong is not one' to be compensated 
in money. The better reparation to 
this nation would be for England to 
remove all opportunity or cause of 
collision between the two countries in 
the future. But those must always ex- 
ist so long as England has a govern- 
ment under her control, and for the 
acts of which she is responsible, 
stretching from ocean to ocean, across 
our northern border, and for many 
hundred miles intervening between us 
and our newly acquired territory, 
Alaska, and while she holds her 
naval stations and depots at Jamaica, 
Nassau and the Barbadoes, from 
which our commerce and our coast 
can be menaced in any future war 
on this side the Atlantic* 



TO SO DO SHE SHOULD REMOVE HER 
POWER FROM THIS CONTINENT. 

Therefore would I suggest that 
that which would best satisfy the peo- 
ple — that which would best meet the 
exigencies of the occasion, and that 
which England could part with her- 
self in most honor, by showing a de- 
sire to take away all ground of 
possible unfriendly relations in the 
future, would be that she should 
withdraw her power from this con- 
tinent. 



17 



SUCH REMOVAL AN HONORABLE AND 

SUFFICIENT EQUIVALENT FOR THE 

ALABAMA CLAIMS- 

I 3o not ask her to give us 
Canada and her Provinces. I should 
be willing to assume all the Alabama 
claims and settle all possible differ- 
ences between the two nations to- 
morrow, if Great Britain will leave 
the Western Continent. Simply 
divorce herself from them, and per- 
mit her provinces of Canada, Nova 
Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Ed- 
ward Island, Newfoundland, and 
British Columbia, each to settle for it- 
self b}^ the action of its own people, 
what shall be its future. I am asked, 
will the Provinces vote for annexation 
to this country ? I am willing to 
take the risk that men and countries 
will act for their own best interests. 

OBJECTIONS IN MONEY POINT OF VIEW 

TO THIS MODE OF SETTLEMENT 

ANSWERED, AND REASONS 

FOR IT SHOWN. 

It is objected, why pay the millions 
due us for the Alabama losses to 
great Britain for the Provinces 
which she is ready to give up without 
money and without price as soon as 
Canada asks for the separation ? 

The answer is an obvious one, 
viewing the matter only as a money 
question. So long as Great Britain 
does not say to her colonies : " You 
are quite at liberty, and jt would be 
an advantage to both, to have you 
separate from us," so long a spirit 



of loyaltj', foslcred by the social re- 
lations of the ruling classes in Can- 
ada with England, and the feeling 
that they have a right to call upon 
British protection at all times for 
their territory, and even for British 
indemnity against any loss in defend- 
ing it, will exist in the Provinces, 
which will hold them to the mother 
country against their better interests, 
and so long will the progress of an- 
nexation, which is at last inevitable, 
be slow, and the period at which 
Canada and the adjoining provinces 
will come to us be dela} r ed. 

Meantime, we are losing millions 
upon millions by smuggling, and the 
expense of keeping up a line of six 
thousand miles of custom houses 
along our external border, but which 
indeed, are powerless to prevent 
illicit traffic and the consequent im- 
mense losses to our revenue. In 
fact, the Minister of Finance of 
the dominion openly declares that 
the United States must depend 
upon their own laws alone to 
prevent the importation of for- 
eign goods along their borders, 
and he holds out that threat as one 
of the inducements to a reciprocity 
treaty. To tempt fishermen and 
coasters to smuggle, free ports have 
been established, covering the line of 
lakes Hudson and Superior, of more 
than one thousand miles, and on the 
Gulf of the St. Lawrence, at Gaspe, 
with an extent of one thousand five 
hundred miles, as depots of free 
goods imported, to lie there ready 



18 



for the smuggler whenever opportu- 
nity permits. 

Further, Canada threatens that 
unless we admit her grain at a low 
rate of duty, so as to vie with the 
productions of our own farm, it shall 
be distilled into spirits and in that 
form smuggled into our territory in 
competition with our distillers, and in 
evasion of the heavy tax upon spirits 
from which we hope at some time, 
not long in the future, to receive tax- 
ation enough to pay the interest on 
our debt. 

It would be more economical 
for the United States to pay 
the Alabama claims, whatever they 
may be, in money five times over, 
than to allow the present commercial 
and political relations of Canada, 
with all the losses, expenses and 
complications to remain open 
for a single year, to say nothing of 
the cost to us of the suppression of 
the raids of our irrepressible Fenian 
brethren, which seem likely to be 
periodically repeated, at least until 
Ireland is free. 

THE DANGERS OF WAR FROM OUR FISH- 
ERY COLLISIONS. 

But there are other and more diffi- 
cult complications arising daily which 
demand in the interest of peace be- 
tween the two nations, the immediate 
settlement of the Alabama claims, 
in a manner which shall take away all 
possibility of future entanglements. 
For the purpose of forcing a recip- 
rocity treaty upon the United States, 



the Canadian government has been for 
the past two years renewing its pre- 
tensions to the exclusive right of the 
fisheries in the great bays and estu- 
aries along shores adjoining the Brit- 
ish provinces, pretensions which are 
only to be examined to be found un- 
just, pretensions under which they 
have seized a number of vessels be- 
longing to the United States upon 
the flimsiest pretexts, broken up the 
voyages ; turned loose the crews 
who are part owners ; and subjected 
the owners to the hardship of de- 
fending their claims to their own 
property before a British Vice-admi- 
ralty Court, only to find their vessels, 
if they succeed, returned to them strip- 
ped of their lines, cordage and rim- 
ing rigging ; allowed to go to waste, 
while in the hands of the court ; 
with their cargoes perished ; the voy- 
age broken up, and the means of 
continuing it carried oft' without any 
responsibility for the loss. Canada 
claims to enact laws providing for the 
seizure and confiscation of our ves- 
sels if they fish within the lines 
which her laws prescribe, and also 
if found taking shelter for more than 
twenty-four hours in her bays and 
harbors, whatever the inclemency of 
the weather, or even if buying provis- 
ions or supplies therein, with which 
to fish anywhere upon the broad ex- 
pause of the ocean. This condition 
of conflicting rights and claims can- 
not long rest without collisions 
win 'h will severely endanger the 
peace of the nations. American sea 



19 



men are not too patient of wrongs 
from that power which impressed their 
fathers and searched their ships on the 
high seas — till Ave went to war for 
sailors' rights. 

OUR RIGHTS TO THE FISHERIES HISTORI- 
CALLY VINDICATED. 

As the conflicting claims of the 
two governments to these fisheries, 
are but little understood save by stu- 
dents of our international relations, 
I may be pardoned, I trust, for tres- 
passing upon your patience a few mo- 
ments to succinctly state exactly our 
rights and the claims of Canada. 

The importance of the fisheries on 
the northern coast of America was 
very early known and appreciated 
by both France and England ; in- 
deed it is almost certain that the 
Grand Bank were known and fish- 
ed by Europeans before the discov- 
eries by Columbus. When France 
had colonized Canada, Acadia and 
Cape Breton, she built her strongest 
fortress on this continent at Louis- 
burg, so important did she deem her 
fisheries, to protect them. 

THE FISHERIES CAPTURED FROM THE 
FRENCH BY MASSACHUSETTS TROOPS. 

That fortress was captured by the 
infant colonies of Massachusetts Bay, 
without any assistance of the troops 
of the mother country, and the fisher- 
ies were thereby wrested from France. 
This gallant exploit was done in 
1758, a year before Wolf attacked 
Quebec, and was the beginning of 



that series of victories by which 
Great Britain destroyed the power 
of France upon this continent. The 
expedition was under a Massachu- 
setts General, and largely composed 
of Massachusetts troops, and was 
fitted out and carried to its suc- 
cessful result that Massachusetts 
fishermen should have free fishery 
in these seas. And permit me to say 
here, that the rights obtained by 
the fathers will be maintained by 
their sons. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE FISHING 
RIGHTS AS VIEWED BY THE FOUND- 
ERS OF THE GOVERNMENT. 

In the negotiation for peace which 
terminated the war of the Revolu- 
tion^ John Adams, although his State 
had suffered fearfully in the contest, 
had contributed more men and 
money than all the other states put 
together, and was enormously invol- 
ved in debt, yet that sturdy, incor- 
ruptible old patriot, declared that 
the war should go on rather than 
give up any portion of rights to the 
fisheries ; and by the treaty of 1783, 
all the rights of fishing in Canadian 
and Nova Scotian waters, that we 
had ever enjoyed in common with 
other British subjects, were especially 
reserved to us. 

RIGHTS NOT CHANGED BY THE WAR 
OF 1812. 

At the conclusion of the war of 
1812, the subject of the fisheries 
was not brought into controversy 
in the negotiations of the treaty. 



20 



Other points of difference were 
thereby settled, but upon the fisher- 
ies nothing was said in the treat}', 
for upon these rights and immunities 
of the United States there were no 
differences. The American commis- 
sioners were expressly instructed not 
to yield our fishing rights, and the 
English commissioners made no claim 
that they should so do. Upon this 
topic, John Adams, although bitterly 
opposed to the war as a Federalist, 
wrote to President Monroe this 
memorable and emphatic sentence : 

" I would continue this war for- 
ever rather than surrender one acre 
of our territory, one iota of our 
fisheries, as established by the third 
article of the treaty of 1783." 

Brave, true old man ! And for 
myself, let me say, I could almost 
vote for his great grandson gover- 
nor if he will take the same bold 
stand beside me in behalf of Ameri- 
can fishermen. 

It is necessary to observe, how- 
ever, that the rights of fisheries 
secured by this treaty did not extend 
to the shores of Newfoundland, of 
the Magdalen Islands, or Labrador, 
nor did it include the right, which 
was well secured by the law of na- 
tions without it, of putting in for 
shelter and repairs into the provin- 
cial ports and harbors. For the 
three years succeeding the war there 
was never a suggestion from any 
quarter that we did not enjoy all the 
fishing rights we had ever had since 
John Adams's time. 



THE CONVENTION OF 1818 ONLY KEPT US 

OUTSIDE OF A LINE THREE MILES 

FROM SHORE. 

It being deemed of the highest 
importance to obtain the right to 
land upon Labrador, the Magdalen 
Islands and Newfoundland to cure 
the codfish, Rush and Gallatin were 
appointed commissioners in 1818 to 
negotiate for such unprovided-for 
privileges. To obtain these they 
incautiously — and as I think un- 
wisely — surrendered the right always 
before enjoyed by our fishermen to 
take and cure fish within three miles 
of the land on the coasts, ba} r s, har- 
bors and creeks of the provinces. 
The contemporaneous construction 
of the provision of the treaty made 
by them by all parties, as well the 
local officers and magistrates as those 
of the Imperial Government, was to 
permit our fishermen to fish in the 
great bays and gulfs like those of 
Chaleurs and the Bay of Fundy, and 
that the three-mile construction only 
applied to those little bays or har- 
bors wherein we had reserved the 
right to go for shelter and repair. 

ENGLAND PUTS A FALSB CONSTRUCTION 

ON THE TREATY TO FORCE US INTO 

RECIPROCITY. 

For more than twenty years this 
construction prevailed without ques- 
tion, when suddenly the Colonial 
Governments, desiring to force upon 
us a reciprocity Treaty and thereby 
to gain commercial, advantages, 
claimed a construction that the 
three-mile line was to be drawn 



21 



from headland to headland, i.e. 
from a point three miles out- 
side of one headland to a point three 
miles outside of another headland, 
and by which the great bays of Fun- 
dy and Chaleur were shut in from 
our fishermen, where we had been 
accustomed to fish ever since the 
capture of Louisburg, by our 
fathers, in 1758. This new construc- 
tion was firmly and earnestly pro- 
tested against by our government, 
but unfortunately not resisted. 

LUDICROUS OPINION OF THE BRITISH 
LAWYERS. 

But an opinion of the British Crown 
lawyers was taken, who decided, with 
the singular infecilit} r of carelessness 
of examination, that as " headlands " 
were referred to in the treaty, the 
line must be drawn from a point 
three miles outside of one headland, to 
a like point opposite the nearest head- 
land. Now it is a curious fact that the 
word "headland" is not used in the 
convention at all, so that the opinion 
was simply an unfounded decision 
sustained only by the arrogance of 
British power. 

England's arrogant pretensions to 
our northeastern boundary. 

Nor is this the only instance 
in which England, in her deal- 
ings with us has construed 
treaties to suit herself, and we have 
tamely, nay, ignominousty submitted 
to her pretensious interpretations. 

We cannot fail to remember in 
the treaties of 1783 and 1814, that 



our boundary line was to " run from 
he sources of the St. Croix to the 
northwest angle of Nova Scotia, and 
thence by the highlands that divide 
the waters running into the sea from 
those that flow into the St. Lawrence." 
But when it was found that the " high- 
lands " thus described came a little 
too near Quebec, the principal for- 
tress of Great Britain on this con- 
tinent, her diplomats claimed that 
those highlands could not be our 
boundary because the River of the 
St. John whose head-waters begin on 
the atlantic side of these highlands, 
did not run into the sea at all, 
but only into the Bay of Fundy ! 
And England sent Lord Ashburton 
to treat with us, upon this basis, and 
the government of the United States, 
for the sake of peace, yielded 
up a large portion of the territory of 
Maine and Massachusetts upon this 
absurdity. This could easily be 
done in the interest of peace, because 
as. the land did not belong to the 
government but only to the States, 
it cost it nothing to make the con- 
cession. Have we not sufficiently 
abased ourselves for the sake of 
peace to the grasping arrogance of 
British dominion ? 

THE ABSURDITY OF THE LINE CLAIMED 
BY THE CROWN LAWYERS. 

The absurdity, not to say the mon- 
strosity, of the British claim as to 
where the line bounding our fishing 
rights should be drawn, will be seen 
from the fact that there is but one 



22 



headland of the Bay of Fundy in 
British territory ; and the other be- 
ing on our own coast, if our fisher- 
men are by this constiuction to be 
excluded from that bay, then they are 
to be excluded from fishing on a long 
line of the coast of Maine. Again, 
there are many headlands which make 
the indentations of the coast many 
miles within a line drawn from head- 
land to headland ; nay, the coast 
is hardly visible in the finest 
weather. Take, for example, Prince 
Edward's Island, which, being cres- 
cent-shaped, a line drawn three miles 
from headland to headland would keep 
a fisherman out so far from shore that 
it would be impossible for him to tell 
even where the shore was, or whether 
he was within or without such suppo- 
sititious three-mile line. But absurd 
as this construction is, and as con- 
trary to natural right, and as unsup- 
ported as it is by any word of treaty 
or convention of any kind, or by pub- 
lic law, which recognizes the marine 
league as following the indentations 
of the coast, — save, perhaps, only 
where it covers narrow straits con- 
necting inland seas with the ocean — 
yet it was eagerly seized upon by 
the British government as a means 
of annoyance to the hated and dread- 
ed Yankee fishermen whose enterprise 
and success eclipsed their own. 

THE PROVINCES PASS LAWS TO CONFIS- 
CATE OUR FISHERMEN FOUND 
OVER THAT LINE. 

As soon as this construction of then- 
claims was sustained by the British 



government, the Provinces passed 
acts confiscating the vessels of our 
fishermen found in their bays and 
harbors ; restricting their right to put 
in for shelter and repairs to twenty- 
four hours only, and holding it cause 
of the forfeiture of the vessel if 
found there for a longer period, 
whatever might have been the stormy 
condition of the sea. And, in order 
to make the seizing officers wholly 
irresponsible, exempted them from 
personal liability in case they captur- 
ed our vessels without probable cause 
to believe they had infringed even 
this odious law. 

THEY FIT OUT EIGHTEEN ARMED VESSELS 

TO DRIVE OUR FISHERMEN OFF 

THE FISHING GROUNDS. 

In support of such illegal enact- 
ments, the British government and 
the Provinces fitted out and sent on 
to the fishing grounds of our fathers 
as many as eighteen armed vessels 
to drive out our fishermen from these 
great bays and gulfs, destroying their 
property and crippling their enter- 
prise to millions in amount — scarcely 
less than the Alabama claims. To 
such an extent was this carried while 
the reciprocity treaty was being 
urged, that no fisherman was allowed 
to remain more than twenty-four 
hours in any port, or to buy any sup- 
plies except such necessary equip- 
ments as would enable him to put to 
sea ; and if he lingered longer or 
bought other provisions with which 
to prosecute his voyage, he was seized 
and confiscated. 



23 



COMPARE BRITISH OPPRESSION OF OUR 

FISHERMEN WITH THE AH) THEY GAVE 

TO THE PIRATE ALABAMA. 

Upon the question how friendly 
to us were the acts of Great Britain 
during the rebellion, we have only to 
point to these enactments and their 
enforcement in regard to our fisher- 
men, the subjects of a friendly nation 
then at peace with Great Britain, and 
compare them with the reception in 
a British port of the Alabama, 
staying many days and receiving 
provisions, outfit, balls, parties, 
plaudits and cheers at the hands 
of the British Governor at Nassau. 
How long will the people of this 
country pause, even in their love of 
peace, and see their fishermen driven 
out from the shelter of the harbors 
of a self-stlyed friendly power into 
the storms of the icy ocean, while 
the same power fetes, protects, and 
cheers on our pirate enemies ? 

BY CRIPPLING OUR FISHERIES ENG- 
LAND FORCED THE EEC IP 
CITY TREATY. 

This crippling of our fisheries had 
the desired effect, and in 1854, Presi- 
dent Pierce, who was a New England 
man and deeply imbued with the 
value of these fishing privileges, to get 
them made a treaty of reciprocity 
of commerce with Canada, which re- 
mained in force until 1865, when for- 
tunately the exigencies of the war 
and the unfriendly legislation of the 
Canadians caused its abrogation, and 
we are now free from its unwise and 
onerous provisions. 



TREATY HIGHLY BENEFICIAL TO CAN- 
ADA AND INJURIOUS TO THE 
UNITED STATES, SAVE ITS 
GRANTS TO FISHERMEN. 

How greatly it benefited Can- 
ada will be seen in this, that while 
in 1854, at the date of the treaty, 
our total of exports into Canada 
was twenty-four millions, her ex- 
ports into the United States were 
only eight millions ; yet in five years 
what we sent Canada had dwindled 
to twenty-two milli'ons annually, 
while she sent us twenty-four mil- 
lion dollars' worth of her products, or 
quite treble the amount before the 
treaty. It is to be hoped that a re- 
ciprocity treaty so onerous especially 
to our agricultural interests, will nev- 
er be renewed. 

NO COMPLAINT MADE BY CANADA OF 

CONDUCT OF OUR FISHERMEN 

WHILE THE TREATY 

EXISTED. 

During the existence of this treaty 
our fishermen exercised the same 
rights and privileges in British wa- 
ters and on British shores as their 
own subjects, without complaint, 
murmur or collision, and the British 
fishermen did the same upon ours — a 
privilege, by the way, which we still 
permit them to enjoy unmolested. — '■ 
The fact of the peaceful relations be- 
tween the fishermen of the two coun- 
tries during the treaty makes a curi- 
ous commentary upon the pretext 
upon which the prohibitory laws of 
Canada were passed prior to 1852 to 
shut out our fishermen from Canadi- 



24: 



an waters. It was then said that 
the fishermen trespassed so much 
much upon the shore, and were so 
troublesome, that it became necessa- 
ry to exclude them from British wa- 
ters. All complaint of any such trou- 
ble ceased when Canada had got her 
reciprocity treaty, although our fish- 
ermen fished even in the very ports 
and harbors of the Provinces. 

SINCE ABROGATION OF THE TREATY 

CANADA HAS REVIVED HER LAWS 

TO CRUSH OUR FISHING 

INTEREST. 

Canada, now that the treaty is annul- 
led, has again revived her oppressive 
sive laws passed prior to the treaty,and 
is enacting new and more stringent 
ones against our fishermen, arming 
revenue cutters supported by British 
men-of-war, who have been engaged 
even during the present summer in 
arresting our own fishermen,insomuch 
that some seven fishing vessels 
have been seized, their voyages bro- 
ken up and crews discharged in for- 
eign ports without cause save appar- 
ently for the purposes of annoyance. 

THE MAGNITUDE OF THAT INTEREST. 

Nor is this interest an inconsidera- 
ble one. Massachusetts alone sends 
more than fifteen hundred sail of ves- 
sels on to the northern fishing grounds 
at different seasons, every year. It 
is evident that these seizures and 
condemnations cannot continue. Our 
fishermen will not long submit to be 
seized by the Canadian revenue cut- 
ters without defending themselves. 



UNLESS A REMEDY BE FOUND, ARMED 

COLLISION INEVITABLE AND 

DESIRABLE. 

A collision is inevitable it there is 
no other way in which our rights of 
fishing can be protected. If the gov- 
ernment is powerless to preserve our 
rights through its diplomacy, a colli- 
sion is desirable, because then this 
series of injuries will be terminated 
in a manner that will astonish diplo- 
macy. 

AN OCEAN-BOUND REPUBLIC THE ONLY 
SURETY FOR PEACE. 

Therefore urging the settlement of 
the Alabama claims in the manner I 
have suggested, by withdrawing Brit- 
ish power from the continent and giv- 
ing us an ocean-bound republic, is in 
the interest of peace and not in the in- 
terest of war. No statesman, no pa- 
triot can desire war. Nay, no parti- 
san can desire war, as a means of sus- 
taining his party. "War is by far too 
terrible to be lightly levied, or until 
all other means have failed. We as 
a nation unhappily now know what 
war is, its effects, its sequences and 
its consequences. 

DUTY OF REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRA- 
TION TO REMOVE ALL PROVO- 
CATION TO WAR. 

It is, therefore, the duty of the pa- 
triot and the statesman to provide 
for a permanent and honorable peace, 
and to see to it that all causes that 
mayprovoke war are removed. There- 
fore it is the duty of the Administra- 
tion and the Republican party, as the 
governing power of this country, to 



25 



"bring, at once and at all hazards, 
these Alabama claims and our fishing 
troubles to an honorable adjustment : 
such an adjustment as will be sus- 
tained by the country, and give as- 
surance that no causes of serious dif- 
ference between us and England can 
arise in the future. Such an adjust- 
ment will commend the administra- 
tion of General Grant, with redoubled 
force, to the people, and win him new 
laurels in peace, to entwine in the 
chaplet with those won in the war. 

A PEREMPTORY DEMAND OF OUR 

RIGHTS, FOLLOWED BY ACTION, 

NO CAUSE OF WAR. 

It is said, by certain timid anglo- 
phobists, that a peremptory demand 
upon England to do what we believe 
of right ought to be done, to be fol- 
lowed, if refused, by a declaration of 
non-intercourse on our part, will 
bring on war by England in prefer- 
ence to an honorable adjustment. — 
As the action I have proposed to-be 
taken is fully within every rule of 
international law, such result ought 
not to follow, and cannot follow, un- 
less England chooses to add violence 
to her hostility and injustice towards 
us. Much more stern measures than 
I have suggested, have been taken by 
nations in pursuit of their just rights, 
and not been held to be causes of 
war. 

EXAMPLE OF THE DIPLOMACY OF 
CROMWELL. 

Reprisals and embargoes, it is 
agreed by all writers on international 



law, are not casus belli. Oh! for an 
hour of the diplomacy of the ablest 
Ruler England ever had to maintain 
her national reputation, the stern old 
puritan, Cromwell, when he sent the 
Quaker merchant, whose ship had 
been unjustly seized by a French 
man-of-war, to Cardinal Mazarin, the 
Prime Minister of Louis XIV, for re- 
dress of his grievance, and told him 
to wait three days only for an answer. 
No answer being given in the pres- 
cribed time, Cromwell seized a num- 
ber of French vessels, sufficient to 
pay the Quaker's claim, sold them 
and made good the wrong from the 
proceeds, notifying the king of 
France that the residue of the price 
of the vessels was at his service. — 
Yet no war ensued, says a French 
writer, because an act of justice was 
done, although violently done. 

EXAMPLE OF THE DIPLOMACY OF 
JACKSON. 

Or, if you desire a later example, 
let me recall to your memories Jack- 
son's message to Congress in 1834, 
when the French Chamber of Depu- 
ties had neglected to vote ajmrojuia- 
tions to pay claims to our citizens 
which weie acknowledged to be due. 
He said : 

" I recommend that a law be passed 
authorizing reprisals upon French prop- 
erty in case provision shall not be made 
for the payment of the debt at the ap- 
proaching session of the French Cham- 
bers. Such a measure ought not to be 
considered by France as a menace. Her 
pride and power are too well known to 
expect anything from her fears, and pre- 
clude the necessity of a declaration that 
nothing partaking of the character of in 4 - 
timidation is intended by us. She ought 



26 



to look upon it us the evidence only of 
an inflexible determination on the part 
of the United States to insist on their 
rights." 

FISHING EIGHTS DEFINED BY QUEEN 
ELIZABETH. 

When we make any declaration 
to England of our rights in the fish- 
eries, I want no other language of 
instruction to our ambassadors than 
that given by Queen Elizabeth, in 
1602, to her ambassadors, when she 
settled British rights of fishing with 
Denmark. The British Queen tells 
them: 

" And you shall further declare that the 
Lawe of Nations alloweth of fishing in 
the sea everywhere ; as also of using 
ports and coasts of princes in amitie for 
traffique and avoidinge danger of tem- 
pests ; so that if our men be barred 
thereof, it should be by some contract. — 
We acknowledge none of that nature." 

I ask no stronger language than 
this, and I have used none, in de- 
manding the rights of my constitu- 
ents and country. But it must be 
followed up by acts with a determin- 
ation to make it good by the Admin- 
istration and the governing party of 
the country. 

VIGOROUS ENFORCEMENT OF OUR 
RIGHTS WOULD BRING AN HON- 
ORABLE ADJUSTMENT BY RE- 
MOVING CAUSES OF 
CONTENTION." 

In my poor judgment, such lan- 
uage, properly enforced to the Court 
of Great Britain, would bring about 
an honorable adjustment of all our 
claims, and a full acknowledgment 
of all our rights. And I also believe 
that, upon full examination of the 



case in all its bearings, the form of 
settlement I have already suggested 
would be found the most consistent 
with the honor and pride of Eng- 
land, most convenient and satisfactory 
to this country, and most certain 
to insure lasting peace and amity. 

ENGLAND SHOULD HERSELF MAKE 

OFFERS OF CONCESSION AND 

APOLOGY. 

Mere money, without other rep- 
aration, will never satisfy the wound- 
ed honor of this country. We must 
have for our satisfaction something 
more of concession and apology; 
and it is for Great Britain to say 
in what form that will be easiest to 
herself. I can have no doubt but 
that her withdrawal from the con- 
tinent will satisfy our people, al- 
though it is only the anticipation of 
an event which must happen in a 
few, very few, years, but an hour of 
a nation's life. If England refuses 
this, let her say what reparation she 
will offer to us, the injured party. If 
nothing, then let all intercourse be- 
tween the two countries cease. 

OUR ADTERNATIVE NO JUST CAUSE 
OF WAR. 

This, our alternative, — non-inter- 
course — I do not conceal, either from 
myself or from you, although not a 
justifiable cause of war, would, unless 
it led to a settlement of the difficulty, 
probably result in a declaration of 
war by Great Britain. If so, be it so. 
And in that again case I would say, 
in the language of Jackson to France: 



27 



" If [Great Britain] makes that occa- 
sion for hostilities against the United 
States she but adds violence to injustice, 
and could not fail to expose herself to 
the just censure of civilized nations and 
the retributive judgments of heaven." 

THAT MAY HAPPEN TO A NATION 

WHICH IS MORE TROUBLESOME 

THAN WAR. 

I have said, and I repeat again and 
again, I would not declare war ; it is 
the last and worst remedy for griev- 
ances ; but yet there are other alter- 
natives more terrible to a nation than 
war — loss of honor, loss of rights, loss 
of self-respect. I would do every- 
thing, yield everything, accept any- 
thing, consistent with patriotism, jus- 
tice and the dignity of the nation, to 
adjust peaceably and forever these 
momentous questions, claims and as- 
sertions of international rights, be- 
tween this country and England. 
But more we cannot yield or accept, 
and if the dread alternative is forced 
upon us of an appeal to arms because 
of unrequited indignities, injuries and 
wrongs, as a Republican, then, as an 
American, I cannot fail to observe 
the great temptation that this nation 
has for a war with Great Britain. 

THE GREAT PROVOCATIONS TO A WAR 
WITH ENGLAND. 

Let me say nothing now of the keen 
sense of wrong and injury inflicted. 
Let me say nothing of the rising gorge 
at the thought that England took ad- 
vantage of our crippled condition to 
do those things to our hurt which she 
would not have dared otherwise to 
do. Let me say nothing now of the 



fact that what she did was done to 
crush a hated commercial rival. Let 
me say nothing of the fact that she 
hoped by her course to demonstrate 
to mankind that the great experiment 
of freedom to all, now being wrought 
out by this American government, was 
a failure, and thus in the interest of 
Despotism to crush out all hope of re- 
publican liberty throughout the 
world. Let me say nothing of the 
fact that her hostile* acts were done 
in the interest of a Confederacy 
whose corner-stone was slavery, and 
whose object was to perpetuate that 
slave power which the greed of Brit- 
ish merchants and slave-traders had 
fastened on our country in its infan- 
cy- 

THE GREAT TEMPTATIONS TO MAKE 
WAR WITH ENGLAND. 

But I do remember and cannot for- 
get that we have sixteen hundred 
thousand naturalized Irishmen in this 
country,every one eager to avenge the 
wrongs done his mother-land, the 
Green Isle of the ocean, by British ty- 
ranny, which drove him from her soil. 
I cannot but remember that they re- 
quire no urging to join our armies in 
a war with their oppressors, but are 
prevented by the repressive hand of 
our government, in the interest of 
peace and in sacred regard for our 
treaties of amity, from making war on 
their own account, and that if we did 
not hinder them they would take 
Canada by contract in sixty days. 



28 



IT WOULD UNITE THE WHOLE COUN- 
TRY AND BEING THE SOUTH 
UNDER OUR FLAG. 

I cannot but recall the truth that 
our Southern brethren, many of the 
best and bravest of them, who fought 
against the government, with a vain 
attempt to rid themselves of the 
glorious memory of its history, are 
impatiently longing to fight once 
more under tl^e starry folds of the 
old flag. Give the privilege to the 
brave sons of the South to defend 
their country again in a foreign war, 
and specially one with Great Britain 
— not loved by them any more than 
by us — and it would bring us all to- 
gether again, uniting us with one 
flag, one country and one destiny. — 
In so much is this reunion the hope 
of the patriot, that one feels almost 
to doubt whether to achieve it would 
not be worth all the loss of blood and 
treasure in such a war. 

IT WOULD BE A WAR UPON THE 
OCEAN ONLY, NOT A COSTLY ONE. 

Again, let me not forget that it 
would be a war upon the ocean — 
never -an expensive one — and where 
the most brilliant laurels of Ameri- 
can arms have been won. And I 
cannot fail to perceive that the sav- 
ing of money by the non-importatiun 
of British goods, and the stimulus 
given to American production, would 
quite equal all the expenditures of 
the war. I can never forget that in 
.such a war we have no commerce to 



lose. Quite all our ships are gone 
already because of the warlike acts 
of England's cruisers, which we have 
so long suffered in insulted silence, 
although we know that we can sweep 
the sails of her commerce from the 
ocean. 

SUCH A WAR WOULD BE SUSTAINED 
BY A MAJORITY OF THE DEMO- 
CRATIC PARTY. 

As a Republican and a partisan I 
cannot but remember that whenever 
a country is engaged in a foreign 
war, the administration of the gov- 
ernment is always sustained by the 
patriotism of the people. Never 
would that be so signally demonstrat- 
ed as in a defensive war with Eng- 
land, brought on by the Republican 
administration, in a firm, manly and 
strenuous endeavor to enforce the 
rights of our injured and despoiled 
citizens, to 'avenge our insulted hon- 
or, and to maintain our fishermen in 
those rights now taken from them by 
England's wrongs, which their fathers 
won for England and themselves with 
their own right arms. As a party 
man I do not fail to remember that 
of the twenty odd hundred thousand 
votes of the Democratic party now 
in opposition, twelve hundred thous- . 
and at least are naturalized Irishmen 
who would stand side by side with 
a Republican administration in a war 
with England, Ireland's oppressor for 
nearly a thousand years, and would 
vote as they fought. 



TT WOULD SUSTAIN THE REPUBLICAN 
PARTY IN POWER. 

As a politician I have an incentive 
to such a war, as its result would be 
the perpetuation of the Republican 
party in power for more than a gen- 
eration. 

" LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION." 

If, therefore, when we ask for our 
just rights and indemnification for 
our losses through her acts, England 



should incline to offer us, instead 
thereof, such a war as I have sketch- 
ed, with such causes, with such hopes,, 
with such results and such memories, 
ought not every patriotic American 
to address to Her Majesty's Govern- 
ment a portion of the prayer which 
we were taught in childhood every 
day to say to our Maker — so much 
more beautiful and appropriate in the 
original than as translated by Eng- 
lish Bishops — " Suffer us not to fall 
into temptation " ? 



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